Hakujitsumu
by DirectionOfTime
Summary: The war's over and Kakashi is safely back in Konoha, with little else to occupy him, he finds himself gravitating towards his pink haired former student. It isn't long before he starts to wonder if it's all too good to be true. KakaSaku. Fluff and angst. Spoilers up to 698.
1. Chapter 1

**Hakujitsumu**

_Super thank you to NeonAnything for her wonderful KakaSaku drawings which inspired a part of this story and her permission for me to use one of her characters! ^_^ as well as comic strip I found on tumblr which also inspired this one shot ^_^ _

* * *

Kakashi stood leaning against the tree trunk as he waited for the end of the working day to finally reveal itself; it seemed to get later and later every day, though he couldn't pretend that he _absolutely_ hated it. His single visible eye flicked up towards to the still empty doorway before back down to the book in his hand, it's covered was a deadly-dull grey with the equally boring title of _The Curation and Ornamental Uses of Susuki Grass in Feudal Japan. _So it was a _slight_ change to his more preferred reading material… or perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that it was, actually, _no_ change at all. It was still _Icha Icha_ underneath, but due to the developments of his personal life over the past several years (the most notable, his friend's had laughed, at being his sudden grasp of modesty) had effected a radical change to many of his usual habits and had, for the first time in his life, felt a little bit awkward walking around Konoha with such "adult" literature so obviously on display with his four year old daughter skipping around in front of him.

The doorway ahead was crammed with students in a moment and it was even less time before the subject of his thoughts found him,

"Papa!" She gleefully exclaimed, appearing in front of him in a split second with her arms outstretched, waiting for him to pick her up which he dutifully did after setting his book into his back pouch; he had thought that maybe since she was now in the academy she would start to feel a little embarrassed at being held by her father on the way home, but she'd shown no signs of discomfort and regularly sought out a cuddle from her father whether at home or in public. He himself found it a _tiny_ bit embarrassing when he was trying to look like the scary and formidable Copy Ninja in front of any visiting shinobi to the village and Misaki found him. Of course, he told others that it was just another skill set in his repertoire, though it was a hard sell, even to himself. Her mother commented, with a cheeky smile, that it clearly ran in the family, since neither female member of the Hatake family could get enough of one of his hugs. Kakashi had rolled his eyes at her choice of words, though a tiny, smug smile had settled itself on his masked lips for many hours afterwards… until he'd again left the house and entered the real world.

"So, Misaki, what did you learn today?" He asked after placing a small, masked kiss on her cheek as he set off wandering down the road towards their home;

"Yuuta-sensei told us all about chakra and how we make it and what we use it for, he says we're going to start making it tomorrow," She chattered in one long breath, causing Kakashi to chuckle slightly at her choice of words - as if they were going to crack eggs, add flour and butter into a bowl and mix it to form chakra;

"Well, it takes hard work, but I've no doubt you can do it," He offered along with a small squeeze before he shifted her up to sit on his shoulder, keeping one hand of her calf and feeling her little hands weave into his fluffy hair,

"How do _you_ make chakra?" She asked after a moment, "Can you show me?" Because that was such a simple question,

"Ah, well, at your level you have start from scratch which takes a lot of physical exercise and concentration,"

"Aww…" She whined pathetically,

"I know, it sounds boring, but think of all the cool jutsus you'll be able to do?" He offered, knowing exactly what buttons to press to get his ninja-crazy daughter to cooperate,

"Yea! I wanna do chidori and shadow clones!" She almost shouted, causing him to wince slightly at how close she was to his uncovered ear,

"All in good time," He offered gently, knowing just _how_ much time it would take her - assuming she was capable - of completing the shadow clone technique; the chidori was, unfortunately, beyond her grasp without a sharingan. A sudden mass of orange came hurrying towards them,

"Hey, Kakashi! How ya doin'?" It was Naruto who grinned upon the sight of his former sensei, "Hey Misaki-chan, good day at the academy?"

"You're so _slow_ Naruto-nii-chan!" She replied obstinately, "The academy finished _ages_ ago,"

"It's only been five minutes," Corrected Kakashi, "Busy day?"

"Yea, the daimyo nearly talked my ear off and Hinata's been feeling really sick today so she couldn't pick up Iruka,"

"Ah, that's sad to hear, has she got a bug?"

"Haha, no, she's actually pregnant again, even though she'd sworn that she'd never let me touch so much as her hand again after her morning sickness last time,"

"Congratulations… and my condolences to Hinata,"

"Oi! That's not funny! I feel really bad for her… what a good thing for a queasy stomach?"

"I have no idea, but I'll ask or you can pop over later, if she's really feeling bad,"

"Ah, I might have to, I managed to swindle the rest of the day off,"

"I'll let her know, so she can brew something for Hinata,"

"Thanks, Kakashi, but I gotta run, or Iruka'll never forgive me," He dashed off down the road, waving a goodbye at the two;

"Bye, Naruto,"

"Bye, Naruto-nii-chan," Misaki mimicked, "Is he coming for dinner?"

"Probably not,"

"Papa?"

"Hmm?"

"What's 'pregnant'?"

"Uhh…."

* * *

It had taken months of searching, day and night as he sifted through the hundred of thousands of buds before he'd found the two that he wanted. He took it as the middle finger of fate that they'd been within ten feet of each other barely a meter or two from where he'd started his search almost three months before; so long had it taken for him to double back and restart in another location. He'd already spent months prior wandering around, looking for something he couldn't name and as much as he'd searched for it in his childhood, the loneliness found by a world devoid of people he found crushing and intolerable before long. Especially since wherever he went, there where nothing but lifeless spectors dispassionately watching his every movement with invisible eyes. It had taken him months to realise his discomfort and weeks to decide who would make the most sense to wake up first… before squandering months on finding them.

He carefully sliced a kunai through the white bindings before tugging at them, slowly and carefully so that each movement was almost imperceptible; he might as well have felt as if he were the last human on earth, but he sincerely doubted that was the truth and considering his intentions, the worst thing he could do now would be to draw undue attention to himself or his actions. He finally freed the face of his target and watched for a moment at the peaceful, even happy expression on a man that Sasuke, not so very long ago, would have been thrilled to kill.

* * *

Kakashi had set Misaki down at the threshold of their apartment before he searched through to find his wife, unsure if she'd even be home by now or not, after a few minutes of searching he found her lying on their bed taking a nap; he leaning on the door frame to observe her for a few moments. It had taken a few months after the war had finished for him to look around his village without automatically expecting a resurrected corpse of an old enemy to find him, or to stop seeing the shapes of white Zetsu hiding in the leaves of every tree. The days were long and sunny and slowly his instinctive anxiousness that war bred slowly left him and he settled back to his normal timbre - enjoying his time off with a good book high in the nook of a tree. More and more often, though, he accepted the invitations to join his former students for a drink or even a spar with increasing frequency; the very real threat of the war had been enough to cool a lot of Naruto's hot headedness and he was now a far more amiable (and less deafening) drinking-buddy.

Sakura, too, had found her feet during the war, her confidence wasn't boastful, though it was palpable - she'd become so relaxed with everything now that nothing fazed her, not a letcherous old man trying to take advantage of her having a drink, nor a patient with an arterial bleed and not even a ready-to-explode-bouncing-off-the-walls-excited-about-to-be-sworn-in Sixth Hokage that was Naruto. It somehow brought Kakashi himself a sense of peace to see her so at ease in her own life; for so long has she been hot headed and quick to anger it had seemed a real shame to Kakashi for although brilliant, clearly her insecurities were still in her and had been strong enough to fuel those behaviours.

(Of course, she still _did_ have one hell of a temper, but she had at least learned a far better handle on it, her chakra-charged fist was now more likely to be her last response to some stupidity or other rather than her first.)

It hadn't taken long for Kakashi to realise just how strongly and how often he gravitated towards her when they were out, he told himself that it was really just the little things he liked, like her wry humour or the fact she didn't infringe on his personal space. So he spent most of his evenings sat _next_ to her as they drank and chatted their nights away between missions, his mind more often than not recalling the moments in the war where he and Sakura had been side by side watching Naruto and Sasuke battle Otsutsuki; he hadn't really paid much attention at the time, but when he thought back on it, he'd stayed very close to her and she to him. Unconsciously almost, they'd kept at least a hand on each other throughout most of the day and her presence had been a great comfort to him.

More and more often they found themselves at one another apartments, sometimes doing nothing in the same space other than reading over warm sake; for a man who'd spent most of his life alone it surprised him at just how easily he'd adjusted to have Sakura at his side more often than not. Wherever they happened to bump into each other on the street or meet up for lunch, a smile settled itself on his lips as soon as his eye had found her form. By the time he'd realised that he wanted more from their relationship and that it was possible, he'd thought himself into a labyrinth of 'what if's', 'why not's' and 'what about's' - so much so that Sakura had apparently gotten bored waiting for him to make the first move and took it upon herself to pose the question and dig themselves out of their friend-zone rut. They'd been on the way home from the bar when they'd reached his apartment (which was closer than Sakura's) when she stopped them in the deep shadow between two streetlights and placed a hand on his bicep.

"G'night, Kakashi, see you tomorrow," She offered in her typical tone before her other hand jumped to the back of his head and she pressed her lips to his own masked ones. It had been chaste and gentle enough to allow Kakashi to back out had he wanted to, though it had definitely been far too short for his liking. She pulled back (he still frozen in surprise) offered a last little smile before she was gone.

The Copy Nin had let himself into his apartment and spent the rest of the night in a daze: between his subconscious trying sabotage him by excusing her behaviour as just that of a drunk single woman and the conscious part of his brain which had dedicated it's time to memorising Sakura's form and then accurately projecting what she would look like naked… in his bed… waiting for him… and what he'd do to her in that situation, needless to day he barely slept a wink.

As soon as he'd set eyes on the kuniochi he next day, though, his questions had been answered in a heartbeat and the pieces just seemed to fall into place. Nothing had really changed other than the fact that they sat closer to each other, Kakashi didn't have to wear his mask when they were together in private and if they started the evening in one of their apartments, there was a very high chance they'd both still be there in the morning. Their friends and been supportive (perhaps a little _too_ supportive since Kakashi's sharp eye caught copious amounts of money changing hands at the news they had finally become a 'couple' and who had made the first move) and so life had carried on much they way it and before without any more lingering questions hanging over Kakashi's head, though then, he hadn't any idea what was lying in store for him down the line.

After several years (and some nagging from friends) he'd off-handedly asked Sakura if she'd even thought they should get married, of course, if he'd bothered to think about the error with this question (and it's phrasing) would have become painfully clear but alas, he hadn't bothered and Sakura had responded with an ecstatic and emphatic _"Yes!"_ Before chattering away at how happy she was he asked before she was going to have to, without giving him a chance to elaborate that his question had been entirely hypothetical would she be open to the idea? At some point in the indeterminate future?

Though hindsight told him it was perhaps better he didn't get a chance to ask the second question.

Still, she laughed at him for his decidedly _unromantic_ manner of asking essentially took the hard work off his hands for the planning. Still, life had not changed drastically for Kakashi, he still took missions, found himself glad to be home and took the duties of being a husband well within his stride. Just about the time he was beginning to get suspicious of why everything was so easy with Sakura when he'd heard plenty of complains of other married men, life it seemed, had given him more than enough respite and decided it was high time he was back on his toes.

He'd returned from a near three month long reconnaissance mission, almost falling through the door to the apartment - it had been constant movement with more than few enemies to fight who'd happened upon him on his return journey. He wasn't badly injured beyond a few scrapes and bruises but he'd been utterly exhausted; thankfully Sakura had been home and had placed her healing hands on him before he'd even had a chance to explain his injuries. It wasn't long before she'd managed to haul him to his feet and guided him wearily towards the bedroom for him to get some sleep, he pulled off his flak jacket gloves and haitai-ate before tugging her to him for a much needed hug, though she didn't respond with her usual gusto and he could clearly feel the equally unusual lump at her midriff.

He pulled back about to ask if she'd put on weight whilst he was gone but her uneasy smile and the fact her hand had dropped down to it made him pause,

"Uh…"

"Yes, I found out the day after you left on your mission…"

"Um…" He lowered himself to a seat on the bed, unable to form any real words or even blink,

"Just get some rest Kakashi, we can talk about it later," She offered, a little stiffly and she pushed him to lie down and after dropping a small kiss to his cheek left him be, as tired as he was, there was definitely no sleep for him anytime soon.

"Hgn…Kakashi?" The present day kuniochi stirred slightly, her eye cracking open to find him in the doorway,

"Sorry I didn't mean to wake you,"

"What time is it?" She asked rhetorically, looking at her clock on the bedside table, "Oh my god! Misaki—"

"It's alright, I already picked her up," He walked over to her as she stood up and pulled her into a warm hug before lowering his mask and kissing her thoroughly.

* * *

"Um…are you _sure _you wanna do that?" The white, near featureless man asked in a rather hushed tone, obviously nervous,

"It's not real,"

"It's real to them… could be dangerous… maybe there trauma of w—"

"Shut up this is what I am doing, you're supposed to be keeping a look out,"

"Yea, yea, there's no one around for miles,"

"Then stop bothering me," He reached forwards to lift up the exposed eyelid on the man currently slumped, free on the uncomfortable floor.

* * *

It had taken Kakashi a long time to get his head around the idea that he was going to be a father; so much so that he was still wondering how he might phrase the point that he wasn't sure he was quite comfortable with it even as Sakura was being rushed into a ward with Shizune right behind her so that she could give birth. Still, as he found Sakura several hours later, asleep on the bed looking beyond exhausted, he was about to reach out a hand to stroke the top of her head when Shizune reappeared,

"Ah, good, you're here, Kakashi, you might want to meet this one," She grinned and handed small bundle in her arms over to him before he could so much as take a breath, he stared down at the wrapped blanket with a little face peeking out for a few moments before the child opened its eyes to stare back at him.

"She got her father's hair and her mother's eyes," Shizune spoke softly, "Have you chosen a name?" Kakashi ignored her for a moment as he couldn't seem to tear himself away from the enormous green eyes of his daughter,

"I haven't got a clue," He responded a little dumfounded causing Shizune to snort softly in amusement,

"I always liked the name 'Misaki'," Sakura's croaky voice called out, drawing their attentions as Kakashi took a hurried step towards her,

"Sakura! Are you alright? How are you doing? Are you feeling okay?" He asked in a single very fast breath, leaning over her as much as he dared,

"I'm okay, Kakashi," She answered reaching her arms out and he handed her their daughter, "How are you doing? Still thinking about running away?"

"Wh-what? I wasn't—I'd never—" He spluttered in protest, the idea might have terrified him, but he'd never have left Sakura to deal with it all alone; she took a hold of the child, smiling warmly down at it,

"What do you think of the name?"

"Perfect," He flicked his eyes between the, now, two women in his life, "I love you Sakura," He leaned down and tugged at his mask to plant a gentle kiss on her lips, she responded lazily; he pulled away to plant another little kiss on his daughter's forehead, careful not to disturb her. "I love you, too, Misaki,"

Kakashi had definitely been underprepared for just how difficult raising a child could be, as cute and peaceful as she could be when asleep, she was rowdy and unbearably messy when awake. The first few years had definitely put a strain on the previously easy relationship between Kakashi and Sakura and they'd had plenty of quiet arguments which had left a bit more than an uncomfortable knot in his stomach and heavy layer on him, a part that wondered if everything had been a mistake. Those moments never last too long, though, Sakura was quick to try and make amends and as soon as Misaki had been old enough to walk and talk it was a little easier and a little more interesting. One of his favourite memories being one day, when Misaki was about to turn three, he'd summoned Pakkun inside the house (something he hadn't done for many years despite the pugs grumbling about meeting the newest Hatake), the child had immediately fixated on the small dog and rushed over to him. In a surprising fit of good nature on his behalf, he nuzzled up to her and allowed her to stroke his head and ears, until she grabbed one a bit too tightly and he exclaimed,

"Oi! Not so rough! My ears are sensitive," The look on Misaki's face at meeting a talking dog, to what she still grasped as being an impossibility, had been hysterical and had kept Kakashi laughing for days.

Soon enough, she seemed to warm to the idea of being a shinobi which pleased Kakashi and whenever she picked up some skill or other that he taught her, like how to throw a shuriken or dodge simple attacks, it brought a deep pride to his chest he had never thought possible. By the time she entered the academy, everything seemed to have settled down a little more, he and Sakura had far more quality time together and the direction Misaki gained, afforded by academy, meant that home life was a little less chaotic (ever…so…_slightly_ less chaotic). Still, whenever he returned from a mission he was never so glad to be welcomed home by two sets of arms or when Sakura was sent out, having Misaki to focus on made the wait a little more bearable. The thing that had really surprised him, though, was just how protective he'd found himself of her; vainly, he'd once believed that he'd feel as protective of her as he had Team 7 on their first mission - that he'd care and take care of them but it wouldn't be a completely overwhelming feeling.

How wrong he was.

The first day Sakura and Misaki had been allowed home (after Tsunade's endless fussing over her prized student and self-proclaimed god-daughter), Kakashi had carried her and hadn't wanted to risk running with her (not to mention Sakura very clearly telling him she wouldn't be running _anywhere _for a good while, let alone hopping over rooftops a few hours after having given birth) so they walked slow-time. Kakashi still found he could barely keep his eyes off the now peacefully sleeping child in his arms and as soon as the first one had ambushed him, he was half-way to burying a kunai in her throat before he remembered that he was still in Konoha and that he knew this would-be attacker.

"Sakura! What are you doing out of hospital so soon?" Ino exclaimed, grasping her friend in a quick hug before she crooned over Kakashi, desperate to take a peek at the child, "What did you have a boy or girl? Can I hold him… or her?" She asked outstretching her hands.

Kakashi didn't immediately comply, his muscles tensing ever so slightly to draw Misaki a little close to him, not sure he wanted to hand his daughter over to a stranger (Ino was Sakura's friend, not his, so close enough, he petulantly decided), though his hesitation wasn't missed by either kuniochi,

"Hand her over, Kakashi, Ino won't drop her," Sakura encourage, stifling a laugh as Ino reached out to take a hold and Kakashi was force to relinquish, "This is Misaki,"

"Ooh!" Ino almost squealed, as she took a hold of the child, "She's so cute! Guess you can't be too ugly under there, Kakashi, to make a baby this beautiful," She teased, sparing a glance at him, though was met only with his unimpressed glare. From there the ambush of people desperate to steal a glance at the new arrival had been an unending hell for Kakashi, especially when Naruto showed up _with a cold_. At least Sakura was with him on keeping Misaki as far away from the snotty, clumsy boy as possible; even though he whined and pouted and refused to leave the house until Sakura threatened to punch him through the wall. He returned a week later fully recovered, though Kakashi would have still been a little hesitant to let him in were it not for the fact he was already sat on their sofa with Misaki in his arms when he got home.

…

"I should go and say hi," The freshly awoken Sakura pulled away from his hug and went in search of her _miniature _grey-haired terror as Kakashi followed her out of the door, they found Misaki sprawled on the living room floor playing with a few shinobi dolls. She leapt to her feet at he sight of her mother and rushed over to her,

"Mama!"

"Hi, Miskai, how was your day?" Sakura swept the girl into her arms,

"Good! I'm gonna start chakra making tomorrow!"

"Oh? That's good news," Sakura laughed heartily at the same joke Kakashi had earlier, "Are you hungry, Misaki? Would you like okonomiyaki?"

"Yes!" She exclaimed an ecstatic smile jumping to her face,

"What about you Kakashi? Do you fancy okonomiyaki?" They both looked over to him as he'd chosen again to loiter in a different doorway, his arms folded over his chest as he watched his family,

"Sure," He answered an undeniable smile on his face, his mind unable to recall any argument that had come before or why it seemed important, he was left only with the fleeting thought that he'd never been so happy or at peace in his whole life and that the both of them would occupy a very large part of his heart forever.

He stepped off to walk up to them but he suddenly felt as if he'd come back to himself after a blackout - he'd already taken three steps but he wasn't getting any closer to his wife and child; the room was small, within two steps, he should have been able to envelop them both in his arms. He blinked fiercely but things only got darker, they only got further away and he only felt as if he was loosing touch with his reality.

"S-Sakura!" He called, but to himself his voice sounded faded, echoed, even and all the while the world was only getting darker, his eye able to perceive less and less until he was running into a great void of darkness, neither one of his five senses able to tell him anything other than the fact he was clearly not at home.

"Kakashi," A familiar voice called to him from the gloom, though since it belonged to neither Sakura nor Misaki, he ignored it; "Kakashi!" It called again and he found himself seeing a growing light, though from where he couldn't tell; "Wake up," The voice called him again and he dredged the strength from somewhere to force his eye open, being greeted with the sight of his dark-haired former student,

"Sa-Sasuke? Why are you here? Where is—what's going on?" He was about to ask where _they _were, but his brain caught on quickly and he saw that he was still amid piles of rocks, hewn mountains and devastated trees: obviously not in his home in the heart of Konoha.

"You've been under the Infinite Tsukikomi, I woke you up,"

"…" _What. The. Fuck? _Apparently Kakashi's blank and disbelieving expression said it all;

"We defeated Madara and Obito, but apparently 'The Mother' still got us with that chakra tree-thing, everyone else was caught under the genjutsu,"

"…Gen…jutsu? How? I remember every single day, everything from returning to Konoha, to rebuilding to… to… to…"

"To what? I don't know about what you dreamed, but you've been under for six months at the very longest; you're the first I've woken up,"

"I remember the defeat of 'The Mother'… I remember you and Naruto…" Kakashi was grasping at straws, he and Naruto had fought, surely? Torn off each others arms in the process, right? He and Sakura had been side by side for those final days, hadn't they?

"I guess he must have made you dream a conclusion to the war so that your consciousness would more easily accept the genjutsu,"

"NO! Impossible! We got married! We had a daugh—" Kakashi snapped at the Uchiha, though the expression he got in response was enough to have him bite off the last of his sentence, it couldn't have _just_ been an illusion, could it? He recalled the taste of Sakura's lips, how Misaki sounded when she was frightened and wanted to nothing more than the comfort of her father's arms, how big his daughter's eyes looked the first time he held her or just how beautiful Sakura looked on their wedding day… it wasn't possible for _all _of those things to be an illusion, was it?

"Kakashi, hurry up and get your head together whilst I wake Sakura up," Sasuke rose to his feet and waked away as Kakashi was still staring blankly around a world he didn't know; how could it have all been an illusion? He felt every sensation, treasured every memory of every day…

"Hgn? What's happening? Why am I?" The sudden voice of a groggy Sakura reached his ears and Kakashi almost leapt to his feat, his single eye boring down upon her, his brain not given the time to think about what it wanted to see, or what it desired her reaction to be, the only thing it could do was observe.

Sakura blinked heavily and mistrusfully at Sasuke who murmured the same explanation he'd given to Kakashi before she frowned in the same way, of utter rejection of his version of reality from whatever it was that she must have experienced. As the moments ticked past, Kakashi's heart sank lower and lower, realising that everything he had… and most likely _would __ever_ hold dear had been blown to smithereens; still he could not tear himself away from looking at the kuniochi who'd stolen his heart and given him a family… at least, in one reality or another.

He watched as she rubbed the ball of her hand over one of her eyes before she looked back at Sasuke (still utterly confused) though her expression morphed into one of uncertain recognition before her eyes looked beyond her childhood crush and at the wold around her. She looked grimy and tired, but no less beautiful to Kakashi's eyes. He saw as her green eyes roved slowly over the landscape, like a blindman regaining his sight after many years, rediscovering a world whose familiarity was an old, unwelcome friend.

Too soon and too late, her eyes found his and her expression leapt to one of desperate need: the same expression he'd seen on her real—_dream_ self whenever she was scared or uncertain or felt powerless, she'd looked to him with exactly that expression. It was the one used between lovers who'd known each other for years. It was reserved for a special few. Kakashi had only been graced with his look once he and Sakura had been together for years. In his so-called 'dream world'… but still she looked at him as if he was still her husband and she was in dire need of his aid. He resisted the immediate impulse to leap to her side and in that moment of hesitation, Sasuke broke the spell,

"Sakura, I need you to help me break the control on the chakra of everyone else; Kakashi, use your sharing on them." He was already walking away to the next victim.

Kakashi was still frozen to his spot as Sakura blinked and scrubbed her eyes for a few moments again before reconnecting her eyes to his, her expression now less confused and scared, though it held an intimacy. Had she been dreaming of him too? Could she possibly have—

"Hurry up!" Sasuke hissed, clearly unimpressed by their dawdling; Kakashi and Sakura shared one last look before they forced their bodies to move and they slowly began to accept their new, unwelcome reality.

* * *

_A/n - Mwahaha here's just a cheeky lil one-shot that occurred to me a evening or two ago as I've been re-reading Naruto (well, from sort of Pein's attack on) - hope you enjoyed! (You can tell I have pretty much NOTHING to do with children at all, can't you? XD)_

_Just a few little things: _

_\- Misaki belongs to NeonAnything! ^_^_

_— Hakujitsumu roughly translates as 'Waking Dream' T.T_

_— I reckon that Kakashi and some of the older shinobi would still imagine that they're on active duty (albeit maybe on fairly tame missions) even in the genjutsu as it's basically all a lot of them have ever done, Kaka for e.g., I get the feeling that the only thing he's done besides not be a ninja was basically be an infant lol so I reckon it would be ingrained in them that no matter what Tobi might have aimed for in the Tsukikomi, it would be impossible to rid all ninja of their ninja perceptions/way of life etc. Plus to have them all suddenly as civilians just seems WRONG._

_— Also, in this fic Iruka dies in the war T.T and I think Naruto would like to name his firstborn after someone important (I thought about Jirairya, but the only association I can have with that name is pervert and it just seemed wrong for a 5 yr old lol) Also, Bolt is a stupid name, there, I said it._

_—Wanna know something EVIL? For one terrible millisecond, I considered making this the ending to Storm Cloud, but it seemed far too cruel and too much of a cop out, so don't worry about that, the ending to that beast will be far more satisfying XD_


	2. Chapter 2

_Okay! So this story has life again! Thanks to everyone on Tumblr who helped me decide what to do with the plot I have in my mind - I'm not entirely sure you're going to like it, but it does have purposes! :D _

_Hope you enjoy... and maybe muster some patience for a certain two? They're having a hard time! T.T _

**Hakujitsumu II**

Everything was _fucked_. As in, royally, ungodly, unbelievably _fucked._ Kakashi had almost mindlessly worked for the better part of a day; he must have awoken hundreds shinobi from their waking dream whilst he was still in a complete daze. His mind caught in a twisted loop of replaying the memories of his past life and of the day that he'd been awoken and forced to face that some of his happiest memories were all false.

On that god forsaken day, he'd woken shinobi, uttered the words "It was all a dream, you were under the Infinite Tukikomi," before he'd moved on to the next. His brain was still firmly fixed on flawlessly memorising the dream of he and Sakura and Misaki; he knew it would destroy him to fully accept the fact it had never been.

"Hgn…Ka-Kakashi-sensei?" The groggy voice of Naruto reached his ears and he came back to himself,

"Naruto, wake up,"

"Whaa? What's going on? Where Hinata? Where's Misa…" His voice trailed off as he sat up and looked around, "Whoa! Where's Konoha?"

"You were under the Infinite Tsukikomi," He blandly answered before it suddenly clicked in his brain, "Wait, what were you saying? What about 'Where's Misa…-?"

"Huh? What? I dunno… I can't remember… I was in Konoha last, as Hokage… Hinata was my wife…" He answered as he rose to a kneeling position, staring at Kakashi with a concerned expression, "What were you dreaming of?"

"…"

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"…" Kakashi let out, to his own ears, a shaky breath, "You're free now, Naruto, many will look to you as leader of the current shinobi forces, though I will help you until things are settled, they will need a strong leadership after they've all awoken from perfection," Kakashi rose to his feet and stepped away to the next body wrapped in the flesh of Zetsu as it stemmed from the great Chakra Tree,

"Kakashi…" Naruto whispered to himself, innately sensing how hard Kakashi's own awakening must have been on him; he looked around, tearing his eyes from his former sensei to see both Sasuke and Sakura not too away from him. He leapt up and rushed over to them.

Kakashi heard his departure, but he couldn't bring himself to look over his shoulder, his mind was far to wrapped up memorising how Misaki had looked whenever she had stared up at him, silently asked to be picked up; how Sakura had looked at him whenever they had a free few hours alone. He couldn't bare to look at her now and see her face bearing only professional familiarity for him.

"Kakashi," A familiar voice called to him, he didn't look over but offered only a slight half-turn of his head and a,

"Hmm?"

"Kakashi, we need to start setting up a command centre and organise all of the shinobi already awoken," It was a disgruntled looked Shikamaru, "It will take months to wake up everyone and we need a plan for how we're going to tackle The Mother and black Zetsu when they find out we're free," He was right of course,

"Okay, I think we should get away from here and set up a secure post as quickly as possible; gather all the shinobi and have them ready to move in half an hour," Kakashi switched straight into Taichou-mode, despite what he'd said to Naruto, playing the commander's role at least gave him something different to focus on.

"Hinata!" Naruto's sudden yell reached their ears, "You're awake, how are you? What were you dreaming about?" The kuniochi took a moment to gather her wits as she looked around before her eyes found Naruto's and she blushed slightly, "I was dreaming about you, Hinata! We were so happy," He couched down to her and still looked a little uncertain before Naruto pulled her into a hug. If Kakashi had been as brash as Naruto, could he have rescued the dream and have Sakura fall in love with him for real? Unbidden, his eyes flicked to the pink haired kuniochi who was staring sombrely at the scene of the two nin in front of her; her head turned suddenly and her eyes found his, they were trapped by each other: her face suddenly seemed almost expressionless but her eyes were searching for something. Kakashi hadn't a clue what expression to show back, it had been too long and now he couldn't bring himself to reveal anything which might suggest his turmoil.

"Naruto, now's not the time for that," Sasuke again cut across, "We need to move, where a good place for us to set up HQ?"

"There's a wood a few kilometres from here, we should go there for cover first of all," Shikamaru seemed the most together of all, perhaps his dreams had not been so fantastical, as logical a boy as he was, perhaps his deep desires were indeed to be found in the physical realm. The group of fifteen or so shinobi lethargically gathered themselves into formation and darted away to the chosen ridge well within the tree line; Kakashi took charge swiftly, fearing that if he didn't, he wouldn't be capable of doing anything.

"Firstly, we need a means of figuring out who is who under all of those wrappings, Sasuke how did you find me?"

"I had to search through almost everyone individually, it took me months,"

"Well do you remember where some people are? Tsunade-sama? Most of the Leaf nin? Gaara?" Kakashi pushed, though Sasuke just stared at him blankly,

"I wasn't even sure you _could_ be awoken if I found you, so making off where everyone was seemed a bit pointless," The Uchiha shrugged as Kakashi sighed in aggravation,

"Alright, the first thing we can do is wake up as many shinobi as possible, we were all allied during the war and it seems that we still all have a common enemy so there shouldn't be too much to worry about from other ninja. Sasuke, please detail exactly how you awoke me, or how you would have done it without the use of your sharingan, for the benefit of everyone,"

"Well, although it is of a very high-class, it is still a genjutsu and disrupting the chakra of the victim should be enough to free them, though without the sharingan it will probably take an enormous amount since they're all being by the chakra tre-" Sasuke's words were bitted off as he began to cough, violently, he hunched over as his hand clamped to his mouth, beginning to sound as if was on the verge of vomiting. Sakura was quick to his side as she placed a hand on his forehead; Kakashi could feel his lip curling beneath his mask of its own accord, Sasuke did not deserve any touch from Sakura. His Sakura. His _dream_ Sakura. His visible eyebrow, also snapped down so low it was beginning to interfere with his vision as he turned his attention to the rest of the group, thankfully most staring at Sasuke, save for Naruto, whose curious expression was fixed squarely on Kakashi.

Sasuke's coughing suddenly got a lot worse as the gaps between his fingers suddenly oozed with blood and Sakura's hands, glowing green with medicinal chakra, were pressed against his chest.

"Sasuke, what have you been doing? You're very ill," She spoke gently, but not without an undertone of scolding all medics seemed to possess, he ignored her as he slowly began to regain control over his breathing,

"What's wrong with him?" Kakashi asked, still not looking at her,

"He has some sort of disease, but with medical instruments I can't be too certain exactly what it is… I need to find Shizune and get the medical tents we set up for this war should still be in tact, or at least salvageable, that will be our primary target. Others might come out of the genjutsu injured or sick as well," She explained swiftly, in his peripheral vision, he could see that she too did not turn her head toward him or take her eyes off her impromptu patient.

"Hai, whatever medics are awoken will be sent to you, how far are the tents?"

"About ten or so kilometres from here, I would assume most of the medics will still be there, wrapped by the plant,"

"Likely," Kakashi nodded, "If Sasuke is not in immediate danger, go there and do what you can, Naruto, create as many clones as you can and have one go with her and begin to revive as many as it can from that end,"

"Hai!" Naruto responded as his hands already flicking through the seals as he created twenty or so clones, all immediately darting off to go and locate the other victims. Sakura too was on her feet and darting away, her pink hair quickly disappearing through the stand of trees and Kakashi felt as if he had let out the breath he'd been holding since awakening.

...

The last of the day had long faded and Kakashi supposed that it must have been almost two in the morning; they'd managed to awaked the better part of fifty shinobi between them, a varying mix of Konoha, Kaze and Kaminari shinobi, all of whom had been equally confused and then dismayed at finding their dreamworld utterly crushed as they were forced back to reality.

Apparently Otsutsuki had not been cruel in allowing her victims to linger in happiness in their dreams… or perhaps it was a cruelty beyond measure for when they awoke, they were returned to purgatory, locked out from regaining their dreams.

Kakashi knew he should check in with Sakura to get a full update on the medics, but Naruto had not long ago informed him that although they had not yet found Shizune, they had revived plenty of medics and they were helping to restore order to the tents and equipment. Kakashi, as deeply as he missed her, could not bring himself to face her, to see everything that he had lost.

"Kakashi?" Naruto's voice drew his attention as the boy appeared by his side,

"Hmm?"

"What were you dreaming about?"

"What?" Kakashi snapped his head around to face him,

"It's just… I can't really remember my dreams well, but I know it was about Hinata, but I feel like you were there, too, and Sakura…"

"How? In what way?" Kakashi asked, perhaps a bit too quickly,

"I dunno… I just feel like you guys were always together, like when I try to remember Sakura, you were nearby too," Naruto scrunched up in face as he tried to recall the rapidly fading dream, "But maybe it's just because we were still hanging out as Team 7 again,"

"Did you dream of Sasuke?"

"N… No, I didn't," The Uzumaki spoke in slow realisation,

"Me neither," Kakashi sighed, unsure what to do with the information, "Do you remember anything else?"

"Nah… not really, its all so fuzzy,"

"Okay, how's your chakra?"

"Okay, I can't get Kurama to wake up right now, but I'll try if you like,"

"No, we're under no immediate threat, its better that you get some rest at the moment; tell everyone else to get some rest, I'll keep watch,"

"Hai," Naruto quickly agreed and disappeared in a poof of smoke; Kakashi rose from his crouch to wander back over to the make shift camp, the night was dark, though lightened by the thousands of stars and big, bright full moon. As he stood on the prow of the small knoll, under the trees, his mind couldn't help but wonder at what a long path was ahead of him now. It had taken him months let go of the lingering anxiety and irascible emotions the war had brought out in him and that had been within the safety of Konoha. Much of that recovery still lingered within his mind, yet all of the support and familiarity that had been essential to his mental health was ripped away from him.

And the only person he wanted to talk to was far, far away from him - it was possible she had not dreamed of him at all, that all he was to her now, her once-sensei, was just an older man who'd always maintained his distance from her. Save those few hours at the climax of the war… unless he'd dreamed all of that as well.

Kakashi pushed up his headband to rub his hand over his eyes — momentarily noticing that he didn't have his sharingan — he sighed as he recalled an important fact he'd forgotten to establish earlier: exactly how much of their memories from the climax of the war were false.

* * *

Before Kakashi had realised it, nearly two weeks had passed, there were now a good number of shinobi revived, most of whom had been picked for their strength. Naruto and Kakashi had taken on various reconnaissance mission to find those they wanted most and discover exactly what else had happened in the world, apparently even civilians had been captured by the chakra plant, the lack of husbandry had meant that the towns and villages they passed had already been mostly reclaimed by nature. Now, though, they were having to being thinking about how to deal with Otsutsuki and other potential enemies who could well have already been alerted to the people already awakened. Kakashi had called a meeting between them all - he was pleased that the Sand three, various Kaminari shinobi and some of the best from Rock, Grass and even Rain.

Each of them as ready to fight as they had been at the start of the war.

He, Naruto and Sasuke had taken on the task of planning for a counter attack on Otsutsuki, Sakura busied herself between trying to figure out Sasuke's illness and analysing the branches of the chakra tree. He tried to stay away from her as much as possible, but he always seemed to find himself walking towards her more often than not. He ducked under the entry way into the tent, finding her almost buried beneath notes and equipment,

"Sakura?"

"Hmm? Kakashi?" She looked up with only the briefest movement of her head before her eyes swiftly returned to the desk in front of her, "We've had some luck, Shizune has been helping to catalogue all of the medical equipment and return it to a useable state and with her help in dealing with everyone else I think I'm making some headway in analysing this tree, it's really something," Kakashi couldn't help but smile as she rose from her bench and grabbed some papers; something in her movements was stilted, as if she was nervous. The Copy Nin couldn't shake the feeling that the reasons for their laboured communication wasn't entirely on Kakashi's end.

"What have you discovered?" This seemed to bring her back as she flashed him a smile he knew well and held up the papers so that he could see them as she stood next to him, as she hurriedly explained, her excitement palpable.

"The plant actually is a plant, but in the xylem and phloem _chakra _runs, sometimes infused in the water that also goes to nourish the tree, incredible, isn't it?" She offered, turning her head to meet his eyes as the excitement lit up her own, she carried on before he could have added anything (not that he tried, he'd always preferred to listen whenever Sakura was on a roll with her research or patients) "The people wrapped up in what look like bandages, are being nourished _by_ the bandages, they're wet to keep the skin moist and allow enough to be ingest to prevent dehydration, the water is also full of glucose - I suppose it's just enough to keep the necessary cells working to keep the paiten- the person, rather, alive. Chakra is also infused within the bandages, but I don't quite understand how that all fits in or how it might help keep the person alive,"

"Why keep the person alive at all?" Kakashi asked as he looked over the notes in Sakura's hasty scrawl,

"What?"

"Why even bother to keep the people alive at all? Why not just kill them so the tree wouldn't have to nourish them and itself?" It had only really occurred to him now, though it seemed like a big thing for Sakura to miss, he eyed her crooked eyebrow,

"I'm… not sure… I haven't thought about it," She offered, her voice lilting as it often was whenever she was learning some new snippet of information or other.

Kakashi found himself frowning, irrationally offended at her apparent ignorance, it wasn't like at all,

"You can't afford to miss things like this, Sakura, they're too important and we're at a critical stage!" He didn't shout, but the aggression in his voice was unmistakable;

"Why are you getting angry with me? I've been doing as much as I can with what I've got available in a very short period of time!" She snapped back, "I can't just go and make wild accusations about what the tree is or what it 'wants' unless I gather all of the important information first, I thought you'd have understood that!" She was really angry now, she stomped away from him and threw the papers back down onto the bench, "I was only giving you an update, for Kami-sama's sake," She ran a hand through her hair as she turned her back to him for a moment. Kakashi breathed through his teeth and was gone, he teleported himself away to a nearby tree, his fist striking the bark before he could control himself. He split the bark and cursed himself.

Why was it all so _difficult? _Why couldn't they just talk as easily as they had done before? Couldn't the just pretend they were just teacher and student again? Eighteen and thirty-two? Of course not, that would be far too easy.

His attention was drawn by Naruto's shout,

"Hey! Hey! Sakura!" Kakashi moved enough to see what the fuss was about when he saw the Uzumaki carrying what looked to be like a limp Uchiha slung across his shoulders. This was certainly new. He continued to watch as Sakura appeared from beneath the tent entryway, an irritated frown still pinching her eyebrows though it quickly dissipated as soon as she saw her two old-_current_ teammates. How was it now, that every time Kakashi showed up, he made her miserable and just as soon, Sasuke would be there to take her mind off of it. What a twisted parody of all those years ago when Kakashi had to do the cheering for the messes Sasuke created.

Kakashi hesitated for a few moments as the three disappeared into the tent, he didn't really want to go back in there now, but he really had no option.

"Naruto? What was that shouting about?" Kakashi asked as he stepped over the threshold, seeing Sasuke laid out on a cot with Sakura looming over him. Shizune nearly crashed into Kakashi as she hurried past him,

"Sorry, Kakashi-sampai, Sakura, what's happening? Is he any worse?"

"Yes, but I haven't had much luck in understanding exactly what is wrong with him, let along creating a cure," He heard Sakura explain to Shizune and he left the medics to do the work.

"Naruto, what happened?"

"I dunno, I was talking with Gaara and he just collapsed, he's been really grouchy lately… though with Sasuke it's hard to tell, but he hasn't eaten anything for a day or two,"

"What?" Sakura snapped, apparently having heard, "Naruto I told you to _watch_ him, to _make sure he ate_, idiot!"

Naruto scratched his head and grinned remorsefully, "Sorry, Sakura," It occurred to Kakashi how Naruto didn't bother with honourifics with her anymore, as he had always dutifully done; had his dreamworld taken him so much further in time than that which passed in the real world, too?

"Shizune, do we have any IVs intact?"

"Yes, I'm still going through everything that's been salvaged, but I think we can sort something out, I'll have some of the other medics prepare one and bring it here, I'll also get back to your earlier notes and start working on some analysis, please draw a blood sample for me,"

"Hai," Sakura stood up and rushed over to a nearby make-shift bookcase, "If you two don't mind I have a patient to treat; he's stable for now and I'll let you know when I find out more," She shot at them, as she pulled out a small syringe. Kakashi and Naruto shared a glance and left the tent, the younger was quick to leave, though Kakashi lingered for just a moment more, hearing Sakura sigh before apparently muttering to herself,

"Why is it you always have to show up and force yourself into the middle of everything, just so you can ruin things for everyone, Sasuke?"

..

.

_Edit: Sakura is 18 here, though I know it she's supposed to be 16-ish during the war, but I'm not cool with writing the dynamic (after what's happened in the Infinite Tsukikomi) to write this kind of relationship between Kaka and an underage Saku, even if I did, the story would still have to wait until Saku was a little older anyway, so I'm just kind of cutting off the corner here. Just and FYI ~_


	3. Chapter 3

**Hakujitsumu III**

Shikamaru sat leaning against a tree whilst his mind mulled over the options for how they would handle the Mother, doubtlessly, if she hadn't already been alerted that her Tsukikomi had been partially undone, she would be very soon. Apparently, all of those who were wrapped by the branches of the tree were ultimately turned into white Zetsu bodies… but there was no way of knowing how long that process would take, or at what point it would become reversible. Was Sakura aware of this information? Perhaps she could begin to look at countering the transformation, maybe some of the small animals who'd been captured were already beginning to be adapted? He sighed at the quiet world around him, although he appreciated a quiet day cloud-gazing, but this silence was utterly unnatural, disturbingly so and it interfered with his inner calm.

His eyes moved from the sky back to the overhanding branch above; its gnarled bark seeming to become more and more organised until it… blinked? Shikamaru sat up a little, his eyes beginning to discern a mouth and the outline of a head; the Nara rubbed his eyes quickly, wondering if his brain had just concocted something ridiculous to alleviate the monotony of his post-apocalyptic world, but it was still there when he looked again.

"Heya, how's it going?" The tree said,

"Wh-what the hell?" Shikamaru snapped back as the head leaned forward and the bark began to smooth, as if of its own accord, whilst the bark began to loose its colour,

"Why so glum, buddy?"

"Ze… Zetsu?" Shikamaru was on his feet in a flash, "What in the hell are you doing here?"

"Oh, just to check up on you guys, I've been off keeping and eye on _her_ since Sasuke awoke Kakashi and _she_ is starting to realise, but the good news is that she doesn't know how many of you have been revived and her concerns are really more of a hunch at this stage,"

"That… is good news… we need to find Kakashi—"

"No problem, I was already talking to him, too, buuutttt he's on his way here, now," The white Zetsu grinned just as he sensed the presence of Kakashi,

"Shikarmaru!"

"I know, I've just spoke to him," The Nara looked over to find him,

"Zetsu, how long has the Mother been aware of my awakening?"

"Uh… not for very long, though she wasn't overly concerned at first since there are so many people and animals under her control that she didn't seem very bothered, I guess it's due to how thinly her chakra is spread,"

"What do you mean?" Kakashi pressed,

"Well, the tree owns the chakra, and it absorbed it from her and redistributes it to everyone who's taken the chakra from it… I guess there's a bit of a time lag from when the chakra is disconnected to when she notices," Zetsu explained with a shrug, though both Shikamaru and Kakashi took the moment to analyse the information provided - if there was a time lag between Otsutsuki realising someone was free from the tree, then there was the distinct possibility of an advantage. Well, aside from the advantage they were already enjoying,

"Where is the Mother now? What is she currently doing?" Kakashi asked,

"She's at the highest place on this continent, in the mountains of Cloud, most of her chakra and attention is going to keeping the tree alive and the jutsu aimed at the moon,"

"Why does she still need to do that? If everyone is already under the genjutsu - as far as she knows,"

"Hgn… I don't really understand how it all works, but I think she needs to keep the jutsu working as a means of keeping herself in possession of some charka — I think it's kinda some way to fool the plant into not absorbing all of her charka, so that she can still keep a percentage of the chakra," Zetsu explained with the manner of a child repeating what a parent had told it without really understanding the underlying concept. Kakashi and Shikamaru shared a look, a tacit moment of understanding passing between them - like anything else in the physical realm, there was a clear and obvious target for attack.

* * *

Ino sighed heavily as she sat on the low roof, the day was sunny and hot yet her mood had risen little above the height of a lethargic ground-fog; she watched the people milling around nearby, their voices coming through clearly though of such little interest to her they were almost bothersome. Until a familiar voice reached her ears and she turned her head slightly,

"What about tempura?"

"Kakashi!" Sakura's voice cut through the hum of others' conversations, with playful offence, "It's your turn to cook tonight and I'm not going to ask you to make something you _hate_,"

"I could just make something else as well,"

"That's not fair," Sakura offered amiably; they finally came into Ino's view as they ambled down the street, close by each other, though not quite touching. Kakashi held a shopping bag in one hand, whilst Sakura held another, "What about barbecue? We have some beef and I have a small electric grill, if we go back to mine,"

"Ah, barbecue sounds good… do you have the sauces?"

"Yes! I was planning to make it for you next week, but we might as well eat it tonight," They were beginning to get out of Ino's view, though she jumped up and down to the ground, subtly following them, weaving through the crowds.

"Hmm, I'm sorry to miss that," His voice dropped a little, "But I guess we can advance next week's fun to this week,"

"Who says it was scheduled only for next week? It's not like it has to be rationed," Ino could hear to smirk in Sakura's voice and didn't miss how Kakashi momentarily moved slightly closer to her, his nearest hand to her rising slightly to rub his fingers over her inner wrist. It went no further though, for Kakashi seemed to remember they were in public and dropped his hand again.

They meandered on down a few more streets, Ino watching from atop another roof as a sudden movement caught her eye, she leaned over to get a better look at another Kakashi hovering from behind a chimney stack. He held still, observing the pair until they stepped around the corner of a high tented-stall. The kage-bunshin then whipped a camera from nowhere and brought it up to his eye to snap shot. Missions might have been at an all time low for Konoha, but Ino had to admit, this seemed like a ridiculous waste of charka… for the sake of a few photographs.

Though the kuniochi vaguely recalled Sakura telling her about the extraordinary lengths he'd gone to in the past — usually surrounding the old trio's attempts to get a peek beneath Kakashi's mysterious mask — to divert and entertain them with his foils. No doubt Sakura was well aware of what he has hiding under there now, _I wonder how many in Konoha know what he looks like? _The kage-bunshin leapt over several more rooftops, crouching again to focus his camera and take another photograph, Ino saw as he looked at the screen of the camera and smiled, his eye creasing happily at the moment in time he captured. Ino would never have guessed Kakashi to even own a camera, let alone go to such clandestine lengths to get a picture of his girlfriend. They might be a normally private couple, but Kami-sama this was a new level entirely.

The couple slowed to a halt to along a small parade of shops as Kakashi nodded his head towards a supermarket, "Wait here for a moment, will you?"

"Sure," She reached out her hand to take the bag he was carrying, gratefully he handed it off and disappeared inside, Sakura turned around to look at the shop windows in the street opposite, where various shinobi attire was offered, one of which was an extended belt with additional attachments for pouches - good choice for a medic, Ino thought. Sakura was still distracted when Kakashi emerged from the shop, he saw the object of her gaze and looked around for his kage bunshin, who'd taken up temporary residence in a nearby tree as the real Kakashi wandered over and dropped a hand to Sakura's shoulder before they lazily continued on their wander. Ino saw that the kage bunshin reappeared and took itself into the shop, happily chatting with the clerk and pointing at the belt in the window.

The Yamanaka sighed again and left the couple to themselves, not feeling any better; she was in a relationship herself but what Kakashi and Sakura had between them - the playfulness and ease with which they settled their disagreement was lost on Sai. He was a good man and had eventually learned a passable grade of manners, but the concept of devilish or light-hearted interaction was lost on him. Ino had never been shy or felt ashamed of her desire to forge romantic relationships, yet now that the opportune moment seemed to be upon her, her love life was rather lacklustre. She jumped another rooftop and almost landed squarely on Shikamaru, who was lazing on a roof much as she was earlier,

"Oi, Ino, watch where you're going!" He grumbled, barely cracking open an eyelid,

"How are you, Shikamaru? I haven't seen you for a while,"

"Eh," He returned eliciting an irritated eye-roll from her, "…What are you up to?" He asked at length,

"Nothing really,"

"What's bothering you?" Her tone of voice said it all, apparently, "You're listless,"

"I just saw Kakashi and Sakura, I can't believe that old scarecrow is a better lover than anyone our age,"

"You don't know that, or maybe he's just had better practice,"

"Ugh," Ino muttered, still choosing to stubbornly believe that the older generation had no sex drive - it was far too much of a disturbing thought for her.

"Just sit back and watch the clouds for a while, it does wonders for your troubles," He issued before settling his head back again his folded arms once more. The Yamanaka now turned her head to the boy next to her, his words weren't entirely foreign, but they didn't sound right either - Shikamaru never _suggested _to anybody that they should watch clouds, he only ever mentioned that _he_ watched clouds. Weird. Everything had been weird lately, like something was _just not quite right_. But there was just so much Ino could attribute to being the cause that it could just as easily be her own mind conjuring problems for itself.

* * *

Sakura sat at the small desk opposite to Shizune, waiting for further analysis of the plant stem, whilst her eyes skimmed over the information they'd already gathered. Something was gnawingly familiar about all of the information so far present, but something was just not connecting right for her yet.

"Sakura, you said you thought that the charka was being transported in the phloem tubules, right?"

"Hai,"

"It doesn't look to be that way, actually, the chakra travels through the cell wall, crossing the through the plasmodesmata* to reach every cell,"

"Whoa," Sakura blinked, sitting up a little, "So very similarly to how the chakra flows to every cell in a human body?"

"Yes,"

"So does the chakra travel through the cell wall or through the cytoplasm?"

"Through the cytoplasm, potentially also helping to transfer the proteins and amino acids between cells a lot faster than conventional plants, which may explain how this plant is able to grow and recover so quickly," Shizune explained, taking her eye away from the microscope; whenever they had taken a sample of the plant or removed someone from its bindings, the tree had almost instantly healed itself - perhaps this was why they hadn't been attacked or discovered yet? If the tree healed almost instantaneously, it was possible that the Mother was unaware of the damage being done? It seemed like too much of an opening for them.

"So how could we possibly sever the chakra connections, in that case? Not only would it alert the mother if we managed to cut off one limb, but the tree would recover so quickly it would be meaningless,"

"I'll keep looking and testing, if only we had access to Hashirama's research notes on his wood-element—"

"Yamato-Taicho! Where is he?" Sakura suddenly cut across as she sprung to her feet remembering him, "Hadn't be seen captured? Is it because of him that they were able to grow this tree?"

Shizune stared intensely at Sakura for a moment, her own mind spinning through the available information, "Yes! I think we need to find him as a top priority, go and find Kakashi and tell him what we know so that we can being to organise a means to finding and rescuing Yamato,"

"R-right," Sakura replied, _great, just what I needed!_ She exited the tent and leapt into the trees; the hardest thing she'd faced since waking up had been figuring out how to face Kakashi in the real world. They'd be close, _so_ close in her dream but everything that had happened between them had seemed to take place over _years_ so that it became utterly natural that they been so close. The way he'd looked at her as soon as Sasuke had woken her up as well - as if he knew: he knew what she dreamt of because he'd seen the same things.

That he too had dreamt of just how deeply they'd become involved with each other.

But… it couldn't have been true, could it? Nothing about that Tsukikomi was real and even if, by some miracle he had dreamt of their relationship in the same way, it _hadn't really been Kakashi_. She'd dreamed only of _her projection_ of him, her imagination created the Kakashi that she wanted, not the real-life man himself. Sakura bit her lip as the thought settled itself morosely in the forefront her mind as she dropped down from the trees and entered the small tent that the offensive ninja were using as a base. Naruto and Shikamaru were stood with their backs to her, initially though as her former teammate noticed and stepped aside to welcome her, she saw what the attraction was.

"You!" She snapped viciously, jabbing a finger towards the white Zetsu,

"Gyah! Don't hurt me, monster-woman!" Zetsu immediately curled into a ball in terror as he, too, recognised Sakura (her previous attack on him had apparently left quite an impression, Sakura thought somewhat smugly, _serves him damn well right!_),

"Calm down, she won't hurt you," Kakashi cut across, eyeing passively the shaking form of white Zetsu and Sakura's venomous expression,

"Eh? Sakura, what did you do to him?"

"I caught him trying to infiltrate the medial corps tents during the war,"

"Way to go Sakura!" Naruto cheered, "This guy's really good at hiding,"

"But not very clever,"

"How was I supposed to know it was a stupid pig?" Zetsu grumbled, unfurling himself, apparently now confident he was in no immediate danger,

"Shut up… in fact, no," Sakura changed tack, her surprise at seeing her old opponent having momentarily derailed her initial intent, "I'd rather you told me where Yamato is,"

"Yamato?" Kakashi spoke, the surprise obvious on his face as it was everyone else's - apparently they'd forgotten about him, too, "He wasn't released?"

"I'm not sure, but I think Zetsu is in the best position to give us that information,"

"Ya-Yamato?" The tentative ally narrowed his eyes in confusion,

"The Konoha shinobi grown from the cells of Hashirama,"

"Oh! That guy! I guess he's still at the base where I was initially grown, where the main Akatsuki hideout is located… was located,"

"That's quite a distance," Kakashi interjected, "Otsutsuki's location is well out of the way so that shouldn't be a problem for now; Shikamaru find out who is physically able to move over a long distance and organise a team to go there and rescue Yamato; Sakura, should be among them."

"Hai, Kakashi-san," The Nara nodded and left the tent, Kakashi turned to Naruto as Sakura returned her attention to Zetsu, trying to ignore her hyper awareness of her dream-lover stood right behind her, along with her simultaneous desire to be very far away from him. "Zetsu, in the meantime I would really like to take a sample of your tissue, since you were grown from Yamato's cells and analyse it in comparison to the cells we have taken from the chakra tree," She explained gently, eyeing as he bared his teeth and took upon a highly suspicious look upon his face, "It won't hurt you,"

"Hmm…"

"Zetsu, your cooperation in this matter would help us greatly, please do as Sakura asks," Kakashi deep voice wafted over her shoulder, almost making her jump in surprise,

"Ugh… all right, what do I need to do?"

"Come with me to the medic tents, though no funny stuff this time!"

"Yea, yea," Zetsu grumbled.

"Shizune! Shizune, I've got white Zetsu with me, he was grown from Yamato's cells," Sakura hurried as she pulled aside the flap over the tent entryway,

"Of course! Bring him over here," Shizune span on her chair, reaching over to the makeshift shelves behind her, "Come and sit over here, Zetsu," He did as he was told, though effectively telegraphed his displeasure through his over-exaggerated slouch, he flopped into the seat, "The theatrics are enough, please hold out your arm," Shizune continued as she took hold of the sterilised razor blade,

"Wh-hey! You said it wouldn't hurt!" He clung to his arm as if his life depended on it,

"Don't be stupid, firstly you can simply _regrow_ limbs and this _won't _hurt, Shizune will simply take a scraping from the surface of your skin, it will just feel like scratching an itch," Sakura cut across,

"But I've… never had an itch…"

"Baka,"

"Just hold out your arm, please," Shizune interrupted, prompting Zetsu to comply; she took hold of his wrist and gently scraped the sharp edge of the blade perpendicular to his inner forearm, she lifted the blade carefully and tipped the small residue of skin cells onto a microscope slide. "That's it, you can take your arm back, now,"

"O-oh… well I still don't know what an itch feels like, but that definitely didn't hurt,"

"Okay, Zetsu, the next objective is Yamato, can you lead us to where he is being held? Or was being held last?"

"Yes, though I really hate being a dogsbody for all of you lot," He grumbled,

"I'm sure, but weren't you lonely with only Chatty over there to keep you company in this big wide world?" Sakura offered as she walked over to Sasuke,

"Hmm… well… sorta, it was boring," Zetsu conceded.

Sakura dropped her hand, glowing green with her medicinal chakra, to Sasuke's forehead, "He's not getting any better,"

"No, I'm not sure what we'll be able to do for him, realistically, I'm sorry, Sakura,"

"Hmm, well, it's not like he would have bothered to come for treatment, even if the village was still fully fit," She cooly responded, removing her hand.

"Hey… weren't you in love with that guy, or something?"

"Used to be," Sakura replied, curling her lip slightly at the memory that brought now only a sour taste to her mouth,

"What happened? Did you fall in love with someone else?"

"Yes—no, I just realised what a jerk-off he was… is," At her almost slip, Shizune raised an eyebrow, though let it slide as Sakura quickly changed the topic of conversation, "Shizune, did you find anything in his cells?"

"Oh, right," She turned quickly to her microscope and examined the sample, whilst Sakura made herself busy collecting up extra kunai, kibakufuda and medical supplies ready for the mission.

...

"Okay, Shikamaru, what do you have for me?" Kakashi began as he settled his stance, weighted on one foot with a hand on his hip,

"Honestly, I think two four-man teams will benefit us the most here; one to act as the part to infiltrate the old Akatsuki base and another to follow up the main branch of the tree to investigate, as best possible, where exactly the Mother is located and what her current status is. As Zetsu said, she should still be in so sort of contact with tree in a means that allows her access to charka and presumably still wield; before any sort of an effective counter attack can be made, we need more information on her capabilities. It seems logical that we do this in concert with the rescue effort for Yamato, we have no idea what state he will be in and to minimise the risk of our being attacked, its better that we have the ability to create some sort of diversion if needed,"

"That makes sense," Kakashi agreed, "Teams?"

"Since we don't really have anything here really to defend, other than some flattened grass, I think it would be best if yourself, Naruto, Sakura and Shino go and retrieve Yamato, whilst I along with Temari, Sai and Gaara go and investigate Otsutsuki… if Sasuke were well enough he would have been the best choice, but…"

"Hgn," Kakashi grunted his begrudging agreement; he wanted to sigh out loud at Shikamaru's answer - did he _have _to be in the same team with Sakura? Considering the other two as well, he would most likely be paired with Sakura whilst they took on diversionary tactics or guard duties.

"Kakashi-sama?"

"Yes, that makes the most sense, select the strongest of whoever remains to move out and guard the medical tents to protect Shizune as she works, just in case,"

"Hai,"

"Tell everyone to be ready to move in an hour,"

"Hai," Shikamaru nodded again and was gone; Kakashi ran a hand through his hair before moving to sort through his own weapons' pouches, organising exactly what he had on his person.

Everyday was getting longer and longer in this reality.

* * *

_A/n - It does say Yamato was released from being used to strengthen the Zetsu army (after Madara was take over by Kaguya Otsutsuki), but for the purposes of this story, he wasn't ensnared in the Infinite Tsukikomi, for reasons I'll explain later ~ _

_FYI — Kakashi does NOT have a sharingan at this point._

_*These are little passages between the cell walls of plant cells to allow the transfer amino acids/proteins etc, there are two different types, one which connected the interior cytoplasm between cells and another sort just connects the interior of a cell wall to its neighbour's cell wall._


End file.
